Bitcoin price aims at $30,000 even as SEC charges cause crypto exchange Beaxy to cease operations

• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the crypto exchange Beaxy with operating an unregistered exchange.
• Beaxy, ahead of the charges, ceased operations, citing an “uncertain regulatory environment”.
• Bitcoin price continued to recover on March 29, trading above $28,200, nearing the nine-month high of $30,000.

The crypto regulatory crackdown found a new victim on March 29 as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continued taking down crypto companies. This is the second major lawsuit on a crypto entity this month and the fourth in the span of two months, including the charges it announced against now-arrested Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon.

SEC pushes a crypto company into the abyss

The SEC, on March 29, announced charges against the crypto asset trading platform Beaxy as well as its executives. The regulatory body went after the company for failing to register as a national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. The founder of Beaxy, Artak Hamazaspyan, was also charged with raising $8 million with an unregistered asset BXY. Additionally, Hamazaspyan was also accused of misappropriating at least $900,000 for personal use, which included gambling. 

The Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Gurbir S. Grewal, in addition to the charges, stated, 

“When a crypto intermediary combines all of these functions under one roof—as we allege that Beaxy did—investors are at serious risk. The blurring of functions and the lack of registrations meant that regulations designed to protect investors were not followed or even recognized by Beaxy.”

Beaxy, on the other hand, took it upon itself to shut down its operations before the SEC could do anything about it. A day before the regulatory body placed charges, the trading platform announced the suspension of services on the exchange. Beaxy noted,

“Due to the uncertain regulatory environment surrounding our business, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations…We forthrightly committed to cooperation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for over two years…Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, it has become clear that the regulatory environment is just too uncertain to continue operations.”

Within the last two months, the SEC has taken action against multiple crypto entities, starting with Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon. This was followed by TRON and its founder Justin Sun this month. The influence of conducting regulatory crackdown also reached another agency as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao with violating federal laws.

Bitcoin price remains unfazed

Bitcoin price is trading at $28,310, right under the critical resistance at $28,567. The SEC’s charges on Beaxy noted no impact on the crypto asset, just as the CFTC going after Binance did not either. BTC is inching closer to breaching the barrier to mark a nine-month high.

Flipping the critical resistance into support would also enable Bitcoin price to rally toward $30,000. Reclaiming this level is crucial for BTC to initiate a recovery rally, which would enable the crypto to undo the losses experienced in June 2022.

BTC/USD 1-day chart

However, should the breach fail again and BTC ends up declining, traders would need to watch out for a retest of the critical support at $24,943. Should Bitcoin price slip below it, the bullish thesis would be invalidated, and the cryptocurrency could fall to $22,200.

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